Blogs from Romania, Europe - page 91

The easy answer is that he never existed but I did find out about a very disturbing character called Vlad Dracul Tepes who had the nasty habit of sticking people on spikes and leaving them to die a slow and painful death. Dracul is derived from "son of the dragon" and Tepes means "impaler", thus you get the charming name of Vlad the Impaler, son of the Dragon. This bloodlust led to the myth of the Vampire Lord we all know as Count Dracula. Sadly this was one of the main reasons why I chose to visit Transylvania but after seeing a number of towns and their surroundings I can easily say that this area has far far more to offer than vampire myths and haunted castles. Before traveling to Transylvania I spent a few days ... read more

Arriving in Romania we knew that we were in for a wild ride when at the international border crossing you have to navigate pot holes the size of a whale and there are cows, goats and donkeys grazing on the foliage around the passport control ‘office’. We were only about 10km into the country when we realized that perhaps travelling by campervan wasn’t such a good idea. Now you have to understand that the motor vehicle hasn’t quite made it to Romania as yet, especially in rural areas where horse and donkey carts still seem to be the preferred means to get around. So there we were, driving at 12km/h to keep up with the local traffic, dodging all walks of life trying not to run over pedestrians, drunks, grazing animals and whole squadrons of stray ... read more

We are now real volunteers! After 10 weeks of training, Alecia and I swore in (upon the constitution, we vowed to “protect America against all threats foreign and domestic” “so help us God” - which was interesting) at the Tomas Caragiu theater in Ploiesti. In attendance were the Mayor, gazdas, newspapers, radio and 3 national TV stations. The American Ambassador is usually in tow but he was working on a state visit in Washington. Opening the state visit, maybe making US headlines though probably not, Bush addressed the Romanian president as the Prime Minister, someone the Romanian Pres. hates… Swear in was quite nice though personally a bit stressful as I had been elected to speak as representative of the non-english teachers, in both Romanian and English. 3.5 minutes of Romanian was a bit of a ... read more

When I came into the office on Friday, someone had brought us an injured white stork (the kind that sits on chimneys and brings babies). Why? Because we are an environmental organization of course. We were supposed to go to Almas, the village where we are doing rural tourism work, but instead we speant the day with Storky. Feeding it, making a bed in our closet, trying to find a sanctuary, medicating… it was interesting so I thought I would share some pictures. If anyone has a better name than Storky, feel free to email. The stork is doing better, up and walking around today and has even escaped a few times. It does not look like it will be able to fly to Africa this winter though so we are still looking for a home. ... read more

It’s been nice here in Costinesti too. I’ve had a wonderful time with my boyfriend. We played in the warm water and took pictures on the “stafilopods”. We hugged and kissed in the warm light…He’s been with me all the time and we’ve shared a lot of great moments together. When the sun set in, there was party time!!! We went to the one place that remains the same every year (in a positive way I mean): White Horse. This rock and roll café or pub is awesome. It’s always crowded in here and the people are great and really know how to have fun. Some traveled for 16 hours and the first place they wanted to visit in Costinesti was White Horse. If you ever come here, don’t miss it! The music is like nowhere ... read more